House prices in Egypt down 19.24% y-o-y in 2018

Egypt’s housing market continues to struggle, with the nationwide real estate index plunging by 19.24% in 2018 from a year earlier, after y-o-y changes of -11.49% in 2017, 1.19% in 2016, -14.22% in 2015 and 1.14% in 2014. Nominal house prices also fell by 9.58% y-o-y in 2018.

Real house prices dropped 16.84% q-o-q during the latest quarter.

Property market outlook remains positive

Despite this, Egypt’s housing market is widely expected to improve in the coming years. Why?  Because inflation is eating up a large portion of Egyptians' savings every year. So Egypt's moneyed classes are buying property like there is no tomorrow. Especially as it is hard to get money out of the country. And there are excellent rental yields in Cairo.

In January 2019, the headline inflation stood at 12.7%, up from 12% in December 2018 but sharply down from 17.1% in the same period last year, according to the Central Bank of Egypt.

Rents, rental yields: excellent yields in Cairo at 9.40% 

Cairo apartments are inexpensive at around $831 per sq. m. 

Egypt: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
	Buying price	Rate per month	Yield
Cairo	$124,650	$977	9.40%

Recent news. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi recently removed the last restrictions on foreign ownership of land and property in Egypt, in an effort to buoy the housing market. He also allowed the government, the biggest landowner in Egypt, to use its land for public-private partnership schemes.

Egypt’s economic growth stood at 5.5% in Q2 of FY 2018/19, up from the previous year’s 5.3% growth and the fastest pace in a decade, according to Planning Minister Hala el Saeed.